4 Creative TikTok Ad Campaigns (2024)

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‘[2023]will be a huge year for TikTok,’ according toWPP’s global CCO, Rob Reilly.

When we interviewed Reillyas part ofour Radar survey, hetold us thatthe video-sharing platform was both ‘over-hyped’ and ‘under-utilised’, andthatthe best creativity on TikTok was yet to come.

And hewasnot the only one.

We surveyed100advertisingexecutives about the media channels with the most creative potential, and TikTok gotthe highest combined score in terms of potential and prioritisation, with 40.4% of respondents voting it the platform with the most creative potential, and 50.5% voting it as one to focus on in 2023.

Despite recently being presented with an ultimatum from the US government (the Biden administration is demanding TikTok’sChinese parent company, ByteDance, divests ownershipor risk the appbeing banned), TikTok is going stronger than ever.

In fact, ahead of appearing in front of US congress last week (23 March), TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew revealed that the app had reached 150 million active users in the US – up from 100 million in 2020.

It’s hard to imagine a successful ban on TikTok, which has‘secured an unrivalled grasp on culture,’ accordingtoWashington Post reporterDrew Harwell.

It’s an information source, a channel for social and political activism, and a critical tool for musiciansand record labels. It influences everything from beauty to book sales, lifting its most popular creators to previously unfathomable heights.

And TikTok’s evolving role in pop culture represents a huge creative opportunity for brands; the best TikTok campaigns go beyond dance challenges and hashtags,leveragingthe app’s popularityas an entertainment channel, search engine, source of information and community.

Here are some examples.

In another educationalactivation, Bayer-owned female intimate health brand Canesten used TikTok to tackle taboos and misinformation in Brazil. Inspired by the insight that one in four Brazilian women are ashamed to even say the word ‘vagin*’ (which presents a barrier to getting treatment for intimate health issues) the brand created an online ‘school’ called Intensivão Da PPK (vagin* Academy). Canesten enlisted Brazilian content creators to deliver lessons on anatomy, psychology and body positivity, to normalise shame-free discussions about the vagin*.

The Intensivão Da PPK TikTok channel received 44 million views and was followed by 210,000 Brazilians. By activating on TikTok, the brand circumvented the then Brazilian government’s censorship of sex education and tapped into the audience of peopleturning to #TikTokDocs for health information.

More recently, in February, hotel chain Hilton broke tested the limits of social media-users’ patience with a10-minuteTikTok ad. The #HiltonForTheStay ad, created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, New York, starredParis Hilton and a slew of well-known TikTok creators, in a series of commentary-style videos and skits.

Each segment of the ad was edited and performed in the creator’s own style, resulting in an authentic and entertaining piece of TikTok content – which is particularly important amidst the current backlash against disingenuous brand content (indicated by the #deinfluencing trend).

Anyone who made it to the end of the video was rewarded with the chance to win Hilton Honors Points, experiences, and swag, because, as one creator notes in the ad, ‘10 minutes on TikTok is like three years in the real world.’ In fact, TikTok only extended the video length limit from three to 10 minutes in February last year, telling TechCrunch at the time that it hoped this ‘would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world’.

Finally, an honorable mention goes to skincare brand Eos, for a TikTok-adjacent campaign that demonstratedacute social listening skills, cultural fluency and reactivity. In 2021, a TikTok by a user called @Killjoy, who praised Eos shaving cream in a clip telling people how to shave their pubic hair (or to ‘bless your f*cking cooch’) went viral, causing a 25-fold increase in orders on the Eos website.

In response, the brand partnered with Mischief @ No Fixed Address, New York, to create a line of limited-edition scented shaving creams titled Bless Your F#@%ing Cooch, which sold out in a week. Eos also sent the products to @Killjoy, who recorded her reaction in a TikTok video that racked up 7 million views, and the brand sold 150,000 bottles of its shaving cream in a week.

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